Demand for both in-house and outsourced networking skills is set to keep on rising to support further business IT interest in wireless local area networks (Lans) and IP-based systems, new research has found.

The study of 281 business IT decision-makers by market analyst Forrester found that the number of data communications and network managers recruited across Europe in 2005 and 2006 rose by 11 per cent, and that this employment sector is set to grow by a further 12 per cent by 2008, reports computerweekly.com.

Forrester asked respondents about their respective policies for 17 different IT areas across 2007. Network management was rated as both the most important in-house hiring requirement (by 26 per cent of respondents) and the top outsourcing priority (17 per cent).

"IT leaders plan to hire network professionals who can architect and secure what has already been outsourced, as well as manage the network implications of security and automation," said Forrester analyst and author of the report, Samuel Bright.

Suitable security systems to protect new network processes like wireless Lan and VoIP were also seen as vital by respondents to the survey as these functions become more and more common in British business practice.

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'